ColdCan – Keeps Both 12 & 16 oz Drinks Super Cold

The Beer Can Koozie Grows Up with ColdCanWe recently met our funding goal with a campaign on another crowd-funding website, but did not want to leave out IndieGOGO. More pre-sales enhances our ability to serve our customers. This is your chance to get in on the first production run of ColdCan products, and help us to provide the best service we can to everyone included in this first production run.

Our Idea:

Technology has made tremendous advancements in the past 2 decades. However, according to the US Container Recycling Institute, 274 Million canned beverages are consumed every day. Why do people use the same, cheap, foam koozies to wrap around their canned beverages and bottles in a futile attempt at keeping them cold? Simple = lack of options. So we thought, “What if we were to create a new beverage insulator, using superior design and technology, modern manufacturing techniques, with an eye on solving as many issues related to drinking from beverage containers? That’s how ColdCan was born.

Colder. Longer.

Everyone prefers to enjoy what they drink. When you want your beverage to be cold, you want it to be cold until the last drop. That’s exactly what ColdCan offers you – cold to the very last drop.

In our pursuit to use the best materials possible, we found Cryogel, a derivative of the same substance (silica aerogel) used as insulation in NASA spacesuits and the Mars Rover. It is the most insulating substance known to man for this type of application. Check out this video for a demonstration of the insulative properties of aerogel:

Spill-proof, Water-proof, Frown-proof, and it Floats!

You’re driving, and you have a cold drink freshly popped sitting in your cup holder. You have to slam on the brakes, and your drink spills all over your car. Not with ColdCan. Our lid has a specially designed gasket that seals to the rim of your can, preventing spills inside or outside of the ColdCan. Who needs a cupholder? The seal also prevents foreign matter from contaminating your drink. The CryoLok rings create a waterproof seal when the container is closed. Yes, ColdCan floats (even when holding a full can). Hello, water sports.

Durable, Modern materials.

ColdCan products are all designed for rugged durability. The ColdCan is constructed of high quality, BPA-free Polypropene, a thermoplastic polymer, and Santoprene rubber for the CryoLok fittings. A tremendous amount of time went into engineering and design to ensure it’s functional, stylish, and highly insulative. The double wall body and Cryogel thermal insulator lock in the cold…thereby preventing frowns from drinking warm beer or sodas.

To top it off, we offer a lifetime warranty on the ColdCan Core & Riser.

Modular.

We wanted ColdCan to be more than a “koozie.” Heck, we want it to be the Swiss Army knife of beverage insulators/containers. So we developed the modular attachment system that we call CryoLok.

CryoLok locks easily, but firmly, together with various ColdCan attachments.

The ColdCan Core acts as the body of the ColdCan and fits a 12 ounce can.

The ColdCan Core locks with the ColdCan Riser, to expand the container to hold most 16 ounce cans.

Some of the beverages ColdCan works with are:

Sodas

Beers

Sparkling Water (such as San Pellegrino, etc)

Energy Drinks

Coffee Drinks

Fruit Nectars

and more!

And like the ColdCan Riser, the lid uses CryoLok fittings and attaches to the top of the container, to seal your beverages, or on bottom for convenient carrying while you drink.

Thanks to the CyroLok system we’ll be able to produce additional attachments like a bottle attachment , a cup or water bottle attachments, dry storage of food attachment and more. We are already developing the alpha stage prototypes of a bottle attachment, as seen in our video.

BPA Free and Dishwasher Safe. Eye For Detail.

Some features the ColdCan offers are less obvious. For instance, the CryoLok ring on the bottom acts as a grip when ColdCan is sitting on a flat surface. The ColdCan is easily carried one-handed (even by a toddler), very easy to hold (ergonomic shape built into its elegant curvy design) and it is lightweight due to its construction from BPA-free Polypropylene.

Commitment to Excellence.

You get a lifetime warranty with every product you purchase from us. At ColdCan, we pride ourselves on our commitment to bringing you only the highest quality products. We believe in good old-fashioned American values, such as quality, integrity and innovation. We know that when you do business the right way with someone, they will respect you and your product all the more because of it. Our goal is to show you that same respect in every aspect of our relationship with you.

People love the prototypes!

We’ve been working on this for more than two years. Everyone loves the prototypes! Here are some shots of our functional prototypes.

All About Product Development

Inspiration and Idea:

It was August 2010 when the idea for ColdCan came to T.J. on a hot summer day at the lake, where the once cold drink was quickly getting warm. That’s when T.J. decided there had to be a better way to insulate your drink of choice. He began brainstorming immediately. Contemplation of the idea was addictive and wide-reaching. A year worth of thought, scribbled designs, research, and imagination went into the concept. Then, around November 2011, the idea started to solidify and T.J. began to see the real potential to truly innovate on what a modern beverage insulator should be like. With this, T.J. began serious progress on creating the ColdCan.

Designs & CAD Engineering.

T.J. started talking to several materials engineers and design engineers to understand more about options, processes and how to truly bring his idea to life. In February 2012 he connected with a like-minded designer who had experience in thermal containers and understood the importance of thermal insulation materials and designing for thermal effectiveness.

Several concepts were exercised and in July 2012, the first functional design and prototype was created which used a double-wall air insulated chamber.

This proved effective, but not to the level T.J. expected in this product – it had to be better at locking in the cold. For the next several months, T.J. became entrenched in thermal insulation techniques, materials and designs. A few options emerged, but the design didn’t make sense with this new approach. In January 2013, T.J. saw this was bigger than he originally thought it would be so he enlisted Justin, a trusted friend, colleague and marketer. It was time to break through. Now, with two heads on the problem, the design requirements, unique features, and direction became clear. By March 2013, T.J. and Justin decided on using the highly insulating aerogel / cryogel and they two set out to completely redesign the product to include this material. After several iterations, most of the kinks in the design were ironed out, but one thing still bothered us. This new and improved design was great, but was limited to only supporting 12 ounce cans. By this point, the prototypes were being used regularly and T.J. and Justin were in constant discussions on the product and how to improve it. Refusing to be stuck with just a 12 ounce insulator, T.J. and Justin unlocked the secret to the ColdCan. It had to be completely modular to support 12 ounce and 16 ounce cans!

By April 2013 the modular concept had expanded even further to a complete modular system that could support cans, cups, bottles and more. With this came new design challenges to actually make it modular while including the Aerogel derivative, Cryogel. Shortly after, the Riser attachment came to life during the 3rd phase of design and prototyping. The design was finalized when all the details of the CryoLok modular system were worked out.

The CryoLok system is what gives the ColdCan its universal fittings for the lid, riser, and future attachments. In September 2013, we began the alpha design concepts for the bottle attachment further exercising the CryoLok system and market interest in the ColdCan and it’s unique attachments. From September 2013 to January 2014 we created more prototypes of the core, riser and bottle attachment for field testing. We encouraged reactions from friends and family and strangers and they all loved the ColdCan and how it worked.

Further encouraged that our design was complete, we even bought our own equipment to create prototypes in-house. In total, nearly 20 final prototypes were created and tested. The video features many of them. In January 2014 we began prepping for pre-sales and shooting for the pre-sales promo video. After a few months of that, we felt our message was perfected and here we are today. Here’s more on the evolution of the idea.

Manufacturing and Production.

To make ColdCan a reality, we need to pay for expensive materials and tooling on the magnitude of a large-scale operation. This is our final step. We’ve already received many pre-orders through other channels, but the more pre-sales we can generate the better we will be able to address the coming tasks. With your help, we’ll pay for the one-time cost of tooling and purchase the bulk quantities of Polypro, Cryogel, Santoprene rubber and all the finishing materials needed for our first production run.

We are ready to take the final step – Now we need your help! Please, support our campaign and back us, so you can be among the first to own a ColdCan.

About the Creators

We make no bones about the ColdCan’s origin. It was hot, the lake was cool, the beer was getting warm – and that’s when T.J. decided there had to be a better way to insulate your drink of choice. Along with coming up with the brilliant idea of ColdCan, T.J. is an entrepreneur and Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Houston Texas. When he isn’t counting beans in big business, T.J. enjoys getting outside, supports American ideas/values, and has a deep love for seeking out postcard moments.

But the ColdCan is what it is today, not because of an inspired drinking moment, but because of a friendship between two passionate entrepreneurs. Justin brings two decades of marketing, sales and tech experience to ensure the ColdCan is not only wildly interesting, but marketable and unique for drink lovers and distribution partners. Justin is an executive at an e-commerce software company and loves life, family, and a good cold drink.

Risks and challenges

Risks and Challenges to consider now: – Product Packaging – Perfecting tooling and molds for best quality production runs – Reserving and scheduling production resources

Once funded, we’re confident of our suppliers and manufacturing, but we are dependent on coordinating three companies for all required production material and may be subject to unexpected timing challenges between any of the three sources. Two of the companies are raw materials sources and it’s highly unlikely they will present a significant delay once we begin procurement process. The third company is our manufacturer (who is responsible for the plastics production as well as the tooling setup) and since we have good communication with them, we have the ability to quickly and efficiently address challenges and leverage our personal relationship to overcome obstacles.

After funding, we will provide ongoing updates to our backers on the progress of production. We’ll be here to personally answer any questions along the way.